Peter Ihnačák

Playing career

Peter Ihnačák was a top player in Czechoslovakia, but his family’s escape after the 1968 Soviet invasion meant he was barred from playing outside the Communist bloc. He was taken off the 1980 Winter Olympics team because officials feared he would not return. At the 1982 IIHF World Championship in Helsinki, he ended up on the same flight as Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Gerry McNamara. Someone tipped McNamara that Ihnačák planned to defect, so the Leafs used the 25th overall pick—acquired in the Darryl Sittler trade—to select him in the 1982 NHL draft. Ihnačák then defected at the tournament with help from his brother John. He made the Leafs’ opening night lineup for the 1982–83 season, skating with Walt Poddubny and Miroslav Fryčer. That year he scored 28 goals and 38 assists for 66 points, a Toronto rookie record that stood until Auston Matthews broke it in 2017. Ihnačák spent eight seasons with the Maple Leafs, leaving in 1990. In Europe, he played for ŠKP Poprad in Slovakia, HC Dukla Jihlava and HC Sparta Prague in the Czech Republic, and Freiburg and Krefeld Pinguine in Germany.